Geostrategic importance of Dawei Port in Myanmar for India
Despite cacophony of the US led democracies along with India, Australia & Japan the SCS which witnesses nearly 1/3rd of the maritime trade across the globe, has been militarized by China to enact the real life drama of military guarded trade & technology in the SCS Theater. Contrary to the laws laid down in UNCLOS China has followed its own laws and rules as a result, the Ocean Ecosystem of the region is being totally modified and degraded.
According to the estimates by experts, SCS is home to huge reserves of oil & gas apart from huge marine bio resources. Apart from these, there are some other abiotic marine resources that may be tapped by China or the same may be getting transported at different location, depending upon the changing morphology of the seas and the coasts of the littoral countries of the western Pacific Ocean or eastern Indian Ocean.
In the background of this, I strongly emphasized the unique strategic position of Myanmar, which happens to be the land bridge between South and SE Asia and hosts most of the critical minerals and hence not only assume gravity but occupies cardinal place in India's 'Act East" policy. The astounding Military coup by over throwing the democratically elected NLD Government on 1st February 2021 followed by large scale Civil disobedience movements, protest demonstrations, violent crackdown by the Tatmadaw on the civilian protestors coupled with escalation of violent clashes with the armed ethnic minority groups, though constituting 23% of the country's population but occupying nearly 50% of the geographical area of Myanmar, & concomitant slapping of economic sanctions by the US& some western economies but a surreptitious support to the junta by China & Russia created an extremely enigmatic situation there, for India and its Tri lateral supply chain allies viz Japan & Australia.
This enigma is getting compounded by the expression of lack of faith in the ASEAN members by NUG due to the former's lack of efforts to resolve the crisis, guerrilla style civilian resistance & keeping the experience of his predecessor with the democratic political parties in view, Senior General Min Aung Halong's tougher stand to liquidate the political opponent-NLD.
In this article I will try to express the strategic importance of Dawei port for India in the present day geopolitical scenario of Indo Pacific with reference to the suzerainty of China with ASEAN countries in particular, and littoral states of eastern Indian ocean region or Littoral states of Bay of Bengal (Andaman Sea) in general and India's initiative to develop its own sustainable supply chain without China. Based on my experience at ground level in Myanmar and study of texts on the present day developments there, I am inclined to emphasize the preeminence of Dawei port in the light of conspicuous prominence given to Myanmar crisis in the G-7 meet in London on 12th May 2021 terming it as pressing geo-political issue and surreptitious emergence of UK in its post-Brexit avatar & holding the whip of its past colonial legacy in Asia, in taking the mantle of West.
Certainly indicating of something much bigger, not just restoration of democracy, because a new narrative is surfacing that speaks of inclusive nationalism and creation of a Democratic State of Myanmar.
Myanmar has a long history of coups, wars, and rebellions. Ethnic divisions and political unrest have been common since the first Barman kingdom in the 11th Century and things more or less remains similar but added to it is the entry of UK-the same colonial power carrying the legacy of Evangelistic network which had split the freedom movement of Burma during the British Raj into two opposite directions viz the Karen National Movement which was with the British ruler and the Burmese National Movement which was Buddhist & anti-British.
Now if we add up the narrative of inclusive nationalism & Democratic state with the hitherto unexpressed interest of Britain, carrying the legacy of Raj dipped in evangelist flavor insinuating clearly the fragmentation of Myanmar. If this happens then the eastern and northern states which are nerve center of armed ethnic insurgents who have been demanding mostly greater autonomy or secession from Myanmar may form an autonomous country or an independent country.
Even if the country does not break up, there may be states with greater autonomy and inclusive nationalism & these states are rich/very rich in mineral resources, that are critical to the green energy, semi-conductor chips, military hardware and high end metallurgical products, EV etc. The raw materials for the said downstream products are well endowed in the eastern & northern states that may be a part of the HINTERLAND of Dawei Deep water Port in Taninthyari state.
Out of the nine sea ports in Myanmar, at least the two that are of high strategic significance for India are : Sittwe in the south west corner of Myanmar, hardly 50 & odd kms from Bangladesh border , built with Indian assistance, and the other in the south eastern corner of Myanmar at Dawei which is not yet functional but is being built by Italy-Thailand Development Public Co Ltd . Both the deep sea ports are on Bay of Bengal (Andaman Sea) & thus gateway to IOR.
Apart from these, Dawei port can be said to occupy the central stage in the scheme of things of the Japan-India-Australia trilateral resilient supply chain initiative signed in September 2020 to minimize the dependence on China. My purpose of accentuating the significance of Dawei deep sea port is not only the presence of numerous other developmental/ infrastructural projects by Japan, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea etc under the aegis of various agreements, initiatives, protocols but also emphasizing the critical resources attribute of its Hinterland.
While I was writing this text, a new development took place which further enhances the strategic location of Dawei port for India as well as Japan, Australia. US export to China grew at the expense of Australia- a member of Quad and an ally of the US, after Beijing's trade ban against Australia, on a slew of products like Coal, wine, cotton, log timber may be iron ore also, at a later date. It has also cut down the supply of steel to Australia- one of its top commodities suppliers.
This obviously insinuates that the remaining Quad members have to ensure their own sustainable, safe, stable, resilient supply chain, if a new non-Sino centric word order is to be put in place in the Indo Pacific Region.
The
Dawei
deep
sea
port,
when
complete,
will
provide
India
an
alternative
sea
route
to
Southeast
Asia
and
reduce
dependency
on
the
congested
Strait
of
Malacca
and
cut
transport
time,
Japan
has
been
active
in
taking
initiatives
to
maintain
&
strengthen
momentum
for
the
development
of
the
Greater
Mekong
sub-region
which
has
a
North-South
corridor
linking
cities
of
Mekong
basin
encompassing
Cambodia,
Laos,
Myanmar-Thailand,
Vietnam
,to
China.
But
India
is
not
keen
to
join
this.
However,
the
southern
part
of
the
Mekong
India
Economic
Corridor
is
of
interest
to
India
also,
&
it
would
be
concentrating
on
this
segment
because
it
would
connect
Ho
Chi
Minh
City
in
Vietnam
to
Phnom
Penh
in
Cambodia,
Bangkok
in
Thailand
to
Dawei
in
Myanmar.
The
most
prudent
thing
which
I
wish
to
add
is
that
we
may
get
not
only
access
to
the
technology
provider
for
Nd
Magnet
located
in
a
country
as
listed
above
but
also
get
access
to
additional
areas
hosting
critical
raw
materials
When
Dawei
port
is
ready,
India
is
planning
to
connect
it
with
Chennai.
There
will
be
no
need
to
go
through
the
Strait
of
Malacca
ABOUT DAWEI PORT & THE SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE: The port is located adjacent to the estuary of Dawei River in Taninthayri Region of South eastern Myanmar and was developed with the concept of an alternate route to the Gulf of Malacca. Though the port is not yet completed but it would be pertinent to state in brief the salient basic frame work of this Deep sea port.
It will have 8 Container Terminals dedicated to Coal imports, Iron ore imports, Petro-chemicals, crude oil imports, steel products export and general category of berths. The associated SEZ spread over an area of 196 sq.km is envisaged to be completed at a cost of over 10.7Billion US$ and will set to be the largest industrial complex in SE Asia. This SEZ will have the following differentiated zones viz 1) Information Technology Industrial Zone 2) HI-Tech Industrial Zone 3) Export processing zone 4) Transportation zone 5) Technological R&D zone. 6) Port area zone .
I
feel
that
of
Hi-tech
Industrial
zone
may
be
platform
for
the
upstream
or
midstream
processing
units
of
steel
critical
minerals
that
may
be
exported
to
India
or
Japan
or
Australia
for
downstream
industries.
The
highway
alongside
the
Dawei
SEZ
will
connect
Cambodia,
Vietnam,&
Thailand
to
Africa,
the
Middle
East
Europe
&
India.
It
would
be
pertinent
to
mention
here
that
1400
km
long
India-Myanmar-Thailand
Trilateral
Highway
from
More
in
Manipur
to
Moe-sot
in
Thailand
passes
through
the
highway
component
alongside
Dawei
SEZ.
The highway - from Moreh in Manipur to Mae Sot in Thailand via Myanmar - would open up India's landlocked northeast to Southeast Asia. The project is being funded by the Asian Development Bank.
At the end, I express a Quote must be known to you, and originally expressed by Deng Xiaoping in 1987 that " THE MIDDLE EAST HAS ITS OIL, CHINA HAS RARE EARTHS" .China has 30 years head start.
Time for the US to get moving on a domestic supply chain ......" In the light of the need of the hour for the development of a new world order with its own sustainable, stable , secure Supply Chain, we should get into the critical mineral resources from neighboring countries like Myanmar where the ports like Dawei & Sittwe may be holding a vital gateway to the Indo Pacific.
(Ravi Sinha, Consultant Geologist & ex-Director,G.S.I)
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of OneIndia and OneIndia does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.